The Last Day and Extraordinary Adventure of Leo Yatchenko
by stian.nlm
Summary: Novella in-progress set in the Destiny universe follows Leo Yatchenko, a warlock, and his close-knit fireteam of extraordinary individuals. The story spans a single day, and covers themes of friendship, love, joy and sadness. Humorous moments fills the space of time between battles and the grief that follows, as the characters go into & emerge from life and death.
1. Chapter 1

Leo decided that he would die today. He leaned forward and rested his torso against the wall of the trench, his shoulders stretched and arms folded on the cold dirt atop the trench, damp with morning dew. His fingers moved a cigarette to his lips, and Leo took in a slow, long draw. Before Leo was a great stretch of sky, beautifully decorated with large, shapely patches of cloud through which sharp rays of sunshine pierced. The majesty of it all overwhelmed Leo. He was happy that his final dawn would be the most beautiful which he'd ever seen. In this moment, Leo finally accepted a fundamental truth that he'd struggle to believe since he was born, that life is beautiful.

Leo lowered his gaze from the heavens onto the earthly devastation that laid before him. They too were now beautiful, in its own wretched and terrible way. Crossing his eyes to blur his visions, Leo imagined it as an oil painting on a canvas of red and black. He scanned the horizon from left to right, taking in the sight of the battle as if it was a panorama, which stretched across boundless acres on a field churned with ashes and debris.

Refocusing his visions, Leo could see the details of a particularly blackened patch of land. A particularly ferocious battle had occured there, and it was the focus of intense firepower. Dotting the landscape were the great carcasses of machines and corpses, a considerable number of them being the result of yesterday's battle. In the centre of it was a smouldering walker tank, Leo's personal kill from yesterday. Surrounding it laid many Fallen dead, their limbs stiff, their cloaks fluttering with defiant pride in the winds. So many of these Fallen bore fresh uniforms. Undoubtedly they'd never seen combat before, and yesterday Leo's fireteam was just mowing them down.

These Fallen … what did their lives ultimately amounted to in the war? How much resources were expended in their birth and upbringing? What were their hopes and dreams? All it amounted to was mere seconds on the battlefield. They died like insects and it was Leo who killed them all.

Leo thought that he once knew why they were fighting, the justification of the countless deaths that Leo was responsible for. Actually, it wasn't countless: Leo knows the figure exactly because he just checked his ghost last night: 201,160. Over two-hundred thousands dead. Leo supposed that the Vex were mere machines, that perhaps they couldn't count like the Cabals and Fallen who were sentient beings of flesh and blood. Then again, the Vex were sentient too, and who is to decide which sentience counted? After all, Cayde-6, Lakshmi-2, Banshee-44 and Failsafe are all sentient AIs, and Leo knew and loved them all.

Leo suddenly remembered that his kills actually stood at 201,160 and one. He'd killed his ghost last night, as that wretched hologrammed number hovered and shook in the empty space above his bed. Soon, very soon, and just for a split second, his kills would stand at 201,160 and two. At that moment, a sudden figure emerged from the bunker and made its presence known.

"Leo! You're up early today. Would you like another cigarette?"

It was Tatyana, the newest member of their fireteam. She was a skilled hunter sniper with a distinctively sweet and pubescent voice, made slightly raspy from smoking. Her number stood at 677,150.

Leo stared at Tatyana, noticing her hand outstretched with the cigarette offered. Leo smiled at her slowly, and he could sense that she knew there was something solemn in his slowed reactions. He was savouring each moment, his every movement gentle and slow. He waved with a hand, the motion frigid and soft at the same time, as if that hand might've been gently swept across a baby's cheeks.

"No thank you, I've just had one."

"Have another one, anyway. Smoke with me for a while." Tatyana insisted and invited herself to join Leo at the trench wall.

"Do you always wake up this early?" Leo asked her.

"Not usually, no. I was just tired yesterday and went to bed early is all. There were a lot of sniper vandals and I kind of operated at the very limit. Got over 200 of them, though!"

"They really did not want to lose that tank. I saw some of those shots." Leo nodded and turned to Tatyana. "You're a savant."

Fiddling in her pockets for a lighter, it was as if Tatyana had not heard the compliment paid to her. "I've always wanted a smoke with you, you know, but you're always up so late every day. Most of the time, you're not even up at all until there's been an attack."

"Well, I'm glad that we could share a smoke today."

Leo and Tatyana smiled at each other. She joined Leo by his side, snuggling their shoulders together but keeping her body at a distance. In this manner, they both perched over the trench. Tatyana lit the cigarette and offered Leo the first drag, which he politely accepted with a brief draw and handed it back to her. As Tatyana was taking in her drag, Leo pulled from his pockets a small piece of paper.

"I found this the other day when we passed through New York."

Leo handed Tatyana a small playbill, a libretto. It was torn, its colours faded, but you could still clearly decipher the words: "Puccini's Madame Butterfly".

"This is awesome. Is it an opera? What was it about?"

"Love. It's about love."

"Hmm… Aren't all operas in one form or another about love? What was the story?" Tatyana instantly retorted. Leo was disappointed that she didn't catch that he was trying to be profound.

"I've never seen it, actually." Leo lied. He'd seen it performed many times, and listened to recordings many more times in his previous life. He just didn't want to talk about the incredible tragedy of Madame Butterfly. He didn't want to appear sad in front of Tatyana.

"Oh, well maybe we can recover a recording somewhere."

"I doubt it. There aren't many recordings. But it is out there somewhere."

Tatyana handed back to Leo the playbill. He grasped her hand and pushed it back to Tatyana's side.

"Keep it"

Tatyana was about to respond, probably to reject the offer, but was interrupted by Wilhelm's sudden emergence from the bunker.

"Hey! You rolled that cigarette as fat as a finger! Give me back half!"

"Sorry Wilhelm, but I can't roll thin cigarettes if the tobacco isn't mine!"

Leo chuckled. He wondered if Tatyana could get away with these things if she wasn't so cute.

"Ha-ha that's funny, give it back!"

"Take it easy! I'll get you back! Promise!" She tossed him back the tobacco pouch. It was considerably lighter than when Wilhelm gave it to her.

"What a bum you are! Literally!", Wilhelm grunted and invited himself to smoke next to them. He took a spot next to Tatyana, and now there were three of us all perched on the trench. Wilhelm rolled his own cigarette from the pouch, taking great care to use as little tobacco as possible and rolling it tightly. He wasn't going to pass that one around.

"Here you go, Wilhelm" Leo passed him his own tobacco pouch. "You can have all of mine, I'm quitting today."

Tatyana punched Leo in the arm. "Why don't you give it to me then, Leo?"

Her pettiness annoyed Leo, which he suppressed to maintain a neutral appearance. "I suppose you two could share it somehow".

Wilmhelm pocketed the pouch and retorted "share! As if! This isn't even half of what she owes me!"

"But why are you quitting, Leo? If you quit, I'll only have Wilhelm to bum cigarettes off of"

"Well, it's not the first time that Leo's quit. Don't worry, I'll keep your tobacco safe for you if you feel like it again."

"This time, Wilhelm, I think it'll be different."

"If you say so".

Tatyana tugged Leo on the arms and offered him her cigarette again, smiling and nodding as if to say there's no harm in it. Leo smiled and shook his head, and Tatyana rescinded the offer.

Wilhelm finished a long drag from his elegantly rolled cigarette and exhaled a long torrent of smoke. Pleased with his own masterpiece, he purposefully held it close to Tatyana's monstrosity for Leo to notice. It was a cigarette that wished itself was a cigar, and had held shape as a whole but now began to crumble as she smoked to the end, wasting thick chunks of precious tobacco which fell in succession to the ground.

Wilhelm leaned his head forward out of the trench to address Tatyana and Leo directly. "Did you guys hear about Thomas finding a dozen eggs last night? The Fallen was halfway through raiding a farm on left flank until some of our guardians drove them from it. They took the livestock and all the equipment, but they couldn't get to the larder in time. Thomas was scouting near by and traded those guardians five pounds of sugar for it! "

"Well that's fantastic! Oh my god, I can't remember the last time I had eggs. Seriously, why can't we grow chickens on other planets? When I was stationed in Venus, the closest thing we had to natural protein was soybeans. How is he going to cook them? It's been so long I can't remember what they taste like. I hope he fry at least a few of them!"

"You know Thomas, even if he told me the name of the dish, I couldn't tell you what it is."

"I'm hungry. Let's go find him for breakfast!"

Leo noticed that Wilhelm hadn't finished his cigarette yet. He thought it was rude of Tatyana to suggest a course of action that would leave Wilhelm behind. Perhaps he just wanted to share in the secondhand smoke a while longer.

Leo spoke to Tatyana, who was already half way down the trench wall. She must've expected that they both followed without hesitation. "I think I'll stay with Wilhelm for a bit longer, just until he finishes. You go find him, though, and maybe he'll fry up an egg for you."

"Suit yourself! And Wilhelm, let's have another cigarette after breakfast. If you don't like the way I roll them, you can roll mine for me!"

Wilhelm laughed. "Suppose you want me to spoon feed you breakfast too?"

Tatyana started off back towards the bunker. Wilhelm wasted no time shifting closer to Leo, to the spot where Tatyana had just stood. He glanced back at Tatyana, who was humming a song as she walked, before turning back to Leo and whispered in a hushed voice:

"I'm going to ask Tatyana today. I've waited too long and there will never be another perfect opportunity"

Leo smiled and let out a sigh. He was mentally composing a funeral verse for poor Wilhelm. Funny that he should be the one to need it today.

Wilhelm liked Tatyana ever since she joined the fireteam 2 months ago. Her playful demeanor and bubbly personality gave the initial impression that she would be flirtatious and open to bouts of romances with the guys, but she impeccably played the part of a little sister to everyone. She talked constantly, but never once shared any details about her personal love life or any history thereof. Wilhelm fell madly in love with what he took to be her absolute innocence. Leo reflected on just how inventive the human imagination can be when contained in the space between ignorance and ennui.

Wilhelm purchased front-row theatre tickets to a showing of Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Each ticket alone costed 150,000 glimmers and he had to queue in the cold for almost an entire day. If Wilhelm fails, it won't be because he picked the wrong play. Leo has no doubt that Tatyana would enjoy it very much. It was a masterpiece in comedy written by a philosopher of long past. Leo regretted that he wouldn't get to see it before he goes, but his plan to sit on a rocking chair at the top of Trostland church this evening, gazing out to his last sunset before putting a bullet through his brain was enough to look forward to.

"You'd have to make up an excuse as to why you're taking her if you want her to go with you."

"Why do you have to say that? And all the time in that self-assured tone of yours when we all know how many times you're convinced of the right only to have it blow up later?"

Leo nodded. "You're right, I'm sorry. Perhaps I don't know."

"Jesus, even when you apologize it sounds condescending"

"I'm truly sorry, Wilhelm. I really wish you the best. How about to prove my sincerity, you can have my letter writing set? That way, you can write a really nice letter in fountain ink, seal it with a heart in wax, and give it to her with the tickets in a really grand gesture?"

Wilhelm's eyes lit up at Leo's generosity. Leo treasured that writing set so much that he would practice writing any letters twice over in pencil before using any ink to write the final draft.

"Really? Oh my god, that would be awesome. Thank you! I'll be sure to practice it first before using any ink, and I won't break the tip, and have it back to you in one piece."

Leo meant Wilhelm could have that set forever. But to display such a generosity would only invite unwelcome questions about Leo's state of mind.

"Let me know if I can help in any other way. They're on the bottom layer of my stash box beneath my bunk."

Wilhelm gave Leo a hug with fingers shaking of excitement. He raced back to the bunker, undoubtedly his head's filled with romantic phrases, all of which he would realize in an hour to be either cringey or overly outrageous at which point he'd have to scrape it all and start on a second draft.

Leo was alone again on the trench wall, looking out at the field of devastation. His eyes found their way back to the smouldering fallen walker in the centre of the scene, and it was as if the past 10 minutes had never happened.

"Shit. That fucker Wilhelm is going to find my dead ghost in the box."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Leo was frozen in place, fixed as a statue. If he ran after Wilhelm now, he might catch him. On the infinitely more likely chance that he won't, then his act of pursuit would invariably imply guilt. He thought briefly about leaving them and running away now, but immediately dismissed it. They might think he was a deserter, or worse, a traitor.

Leo looked back to the door of the bunker and imagined the activities happening underneath it. Tatyana was shaking Thomas awake to cook breakfast. Claire would be sharpening her sword and remain unsatisfied until it was either sharp to the gentlest touch or whittled down to a needle. Mukhamet might be … hmm … Leo couldn't tell. Mukhamet was a man with very few habits, both figuratively and literally. Seriously, he was shirtless as often has he could.

They deserved a farewell. Each and every one of them. They'd been together through thick and thin, except Tatyana, although she would be the most hurt by his departure. He liked Claire the most in the group, although she kept to herself mostly. His infatuation with Claire paralleled that of Wilhelm's for Tatyana, Leo suddenly realised, and reflected that he was being insensitive earlier. Leo hoped that he might get Claire to open up to him today, to spill her story and feelings, assured that they'd be safe and taken to the grave with Leo.

"This doesn't change anything." Leo told himself as he slowly walked back to the bunker.

Opening the door to the bunker, Leo was greeted by Thomas on his way out. He was carrying a basket of eggs in one arm, and a dangling Tatyana on the other.

"Oh, hey Leo! Breakfast will be ready in 30 minutes. Bring your biscuits."

"Hi again, Leo" Tatyana gave Leo a split second glance before returning to torment Thomas. "Couldn't you please fry just one of them for me? I won't like Shaq-Soy-Kah"

"It's pronounced Shakshuka! And you'll love it! Dear me, we've eggs for the first time in 6 months and she wants me to fry them! My goodness heavens. Can't you see that only people who can't cook would ever fry things?"

Leo stepped in the bunker through the open space politely left by Thomas for him to pass. As he went by, he looked at Tatyana and saw that she was still dangling from Thomas' left arm trying to get at an egg on his right.

"You'll like Shakshuka, Tatyana. I really think you will." Leo said. He pushed past Thomas, bumping his right arm into Thomas' basket of eggs as he went.

Leo gave a cordial apology to Thomas only for the bump, as no eggs were broken.

"I'll have one fried and the other Shagged! Come on, Thomas!"

Leo laughed and in that moment was glad that he did not run away. He continued on the corridor leading up to their living quarters. In his right hand, Leo held an egg. He means to give it to Wilhelm to fry for Tatyana, because God knows Thomas would sooner see the Traveler collapse onto the Last City than fry anything.

Leo stepped into the living quarters and was greeted by Claire and Mukhamet. Mukhamet was in bed shirtless, possibly pants-less too, writing something in his notebook, and Leo was happy to see that he'd intuit correctly about Claire. She was sharpening her sword with a grindstone.

"Smoking again, Leo? You reek." Claire spoke. Mukhamet continued writing, not wishing to join in.

"I've quit today. Handed Wilhelm my pouch."

"For the last time, I hope." Claire said, and then looked away, not wishing to talk any further before Leo's chewed some peppermint.

Leo went to his bed, and pulled out the stash. He opened it and inspected that Wilhelm had made a mess of everything. The chest was divided into three distinct levels, and Wilhelm's collapsed the third level unto the second. Leo reached his hands into the first level, the deepest, and felt around for the chunk of metal. Grasping it from a corner, he realised that he had hid it well and Wilhelm must not have discovered it.

Leo glanced back towards Claire and Mukhamet, who both carried on as before paying Leo no attention. Assured that he was safe, he pocketed the dead ghost, took a few dried peppermint, closed the chest, pushed it back under the bunk and left the room to find Wilhelm.

"Ok Ghost. Find me some famous love letters in literature."

"Hmmm… How about Yevgeniy Onegin? Tatyana is the name of a great beauty in the novel in verse, and her love poem to Onegin is one of the most famous amongst all of Russian literature."

"Sounds good, pull it up for me!"

There was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Leo. I have something else for you."

"Come in!"

Leo entered and saw Wilhelm sitting by the fireplace, with a notebook on his lap and his Ghost floating by his side. Leo was chewing some peppermint leaves. He approached Wilhelm and slowly produced a large, brown egg from his jacket pocket.

"Leave that for now. You'd better go fry up this egg for Tatyana. Thomas is cooking breakfast and he might realise that an egg is missing."

"You stole it from him? How'd you manage that?"

Leo was offended that Wilhelm's natural assumption was that Leo had came by the egg through theft. Wasn't it possible that he convinced Thomas to give it to him? It would've been unlikely, but Leo fancied himself as someone who could accomplish unlikely things.

"Never mind that, do you want it or not? Thomas took the butter with him outside, but there's a bit of oil left in the kitchen."

"Thank you. You're very kind today."

Leo smiled as Wilhelm took the egg from his hand, and headed off to the kitchen. He'd left his notebook behind on the chair. Leo stared at it, struggling to read the words without having to pick it up. Eventually curiosity got the better of his honour, and Leo picked up the notebook to spy on its hastily written content:

 _Dear_ _Dearest_ _Tatyana_ _Lovely_ _Kind_ _Dear Tatyana,_ ... These headers were all striked through with a line.

 _Will you_ _I hope this letter finds you well & in a good spirit to __come with_ (striked through) _accompany me to a_ _show_ _play tonight. If you say yes, then you will have made me the happiest person in the world. I put my happiness entirely in your hand!_

Leo smiled and placed the notebook back on the chair. It wasn't too unlike the first letter he'd written to his first crush. However, Leo was determined that he would find a way to help Wilhelm avoid the utter disaster that would follow from such a letter.

Leo supposed he couldn't blame Wilhelm as he'd blame himself for his first letters. Wilhelm is German, and a woman's love has never been won in German. German is the language of philosophy & mathematics, its literary virtues stretched to the very limit and exhausted by Goethe a thousand years ago. Russian, however, is the language of the romantics.

Leo grew bored thinking about Wilhelm and Tatyana. He returned to his bunk, past Claire, who was now putting on her armour.

Leo walked past her back to his bunk, and retrieved the biscuits that Thomas had asked for. He opened the bag and reached inside to rip a small piece from a corner and tasted it, satisfied that they'd not gone stale. Leo retraced his steps back and was almost out the door when Claire spoke up to him.

"Leo, hang on a bit."

He turned around. Claire was holding a belt in one hand and a knife in the other. Leo clenched his eyebrows together in morbid excitement.

"I'm going to hide a knife on my person and wants you to check if you can find it. If I get captured by the Fallen, I don't want to be without a weapon after they've searched me."

"I can't imagine you'd ever get captured" Leo responded.

Claire began unbuttoning her jacket shirt and unbuckled her belts. She slipped the denim shirt from her shoulders and pulled her trousers to her knees. Beneath it, she wore a thick sleeveless undershirt and long white underpants.

"Mormon magic underwear!" Leo thought to himself. He wondered if she knew what they were when she found or bought them from somewhere.

For a moment, Leo could see her collarbones shifting as she motioned about. Leo never had any thoughts about any person's collarbones, but these mesmerized him. She lifted her undershirt to just below her breasts, held the shirt in place with her chins and strapped the extra belt she'd been holding onto her bare skin. She pulled the belt to a snug fit and dangled the knife into her sternum. When she had pulled down her shirts & put her jacket back on and pulled her pants back up, it was impossible to detect the knife's shape.

She took Leo's free hand and placed it against her chest.

"Can you feel anything?"

Face flushed with heat, Leo looked to Mukhamet for help. He shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows as he motioned his eyes down to his bare torso and back up to Leo as if to say "what are you looking at me for?"

"No." Leo said at last, and Mukhamet let out a hearty laugh. "WRONG ANSWER!"

His hand was still awkwardly placed on her padded chest. Leo was too scared to move it, and was even more scared to keep it there.

Claire's eyes rolled to the top of her head and pushed Leo's hand away.

"You guys are morons" She said to Leo and Mukhamet, although that indictment could extend to the whole of all men.

Mukhamet fed on her frustration and continued teasing.

"You two want some privacy? I can go find Thomas and cuddle up with him outside. He looked lonely sleeping with the eggs last night!"

Flustered, Leo mumbled an apology and quickly paced out of the room & toward the entrance the bunker with his biscuits. Leo opened the door and a rush of cold air swept into the bunker. It felt good on his still-flushed face. Safe on his own at last, Leo finally let out a smile of relief and retrospectively enjoyed what just happened in the bunker. He was glad to have that moment today, and Leo walked over to where Thomas & Tatyana was cooking the eggs, his lips permanently fixed into a grin.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Tatyana, you're not going to have any eggs until you tell me where you've hidden it"

"Thomas! I don't have it! Why would I be bugging you this entire time if I had one myself?"

"I don't know why people who cook by frying would do the things they do."

"Thomas!"

Leo approached the two, biscuits in hand. Thomas was the first to see him approach, and frantically waved his hand for Leo to surrender the biscuits.

"Leo! Thank goodness you're here, you can help me set the plates. Set only five! Tatyana's not getting any until she tells me where she's hid one of my eggs!"

"Leo, please tell Thomas that I would never steal from him!"

Flustered for the second time in less than 5 minutes, Leo impressed himself by coming up with a response so quickly that it feels unquestionably natural.

"Are you sure those guardians at the farm didn't cheat you out of a dozen?"

Thomas rubbed his chin and pursed his lips inquisitively, trying to retrace his steps from last night. He was so jubilant at the trade that he may have overlooked. It wouldn't be for carelessness, rather the opposite, it would be because of a manic attention to detail he displayed last night. He remembered counting the eggs three times before making the barter, and the first count only returned 11. He must've miscounted the second and third times.

"Those fuckers! Oh They'll have a piece of me and Tatyana later. I'm so sorry, Tatyana. I promise that if you help me get back that egg, I'll fry it up to you to apologize."

Leo thought himself too clever for his own good, and that of his fireteam.

"Well let's not think about it for now. These Shakshukas look delicious. Fresh tomatoes from the farm too?"

"Yep! Those guardians only raided the larder. On my way out, I got to a few tomatoes in the garden as well. It felt wrong taking from someone's personal garden, but they were so ripe that you'd think they were neglected. Better it ends up in our stomach than spoiled in the sun."

Leo began to take plates from the pile, and reached inside his bag and putting a biscuit on each, before handing them over to Tatyana who placed a napkin at the bottom and set them out at places on the table. Leo saved the biscuit with the missing corner that he'd eaten from earlier for himself, and predicting from the pattern with which Tatyana were putting the plates on the table, Leo strategically placed the largest biscuit on the plate that he knew would go to Claire.

Tatyana broke the pattern and placed that plate for herself at her own seat. Leo did not dare to show his annoyance from having been outsmarted.

"If only there were some feta cheese and parsley, paprika too, cumin, cilantro, oh so many more that I can't remember! If only!"

Claire turned the corner and joined in the conversation. "Maybe it's all for the best. You'll never have the things you need while people still starved in The City." Mukhamet followed after her, and gave Leo a stupid smile & wink of solidarity, which doubled Leo's embarrassment from the sight of Claire.

"Where's Wilhelm?" Tatyana asked the arrivals.

"We asked if he wanted to come with, but he said he'll be a minute and told us to tell you to start eating before him."

Thomas grew visibly annoyed. "Well he gets one egg then while everyone gets two."

Everyone gathered at the table. Thomas brought the still-hot pan from the fire onto the centre, and began scooping out equal portions to each person's plate. Leo immediately salted his, for his palate was that of a peasant and incapable of appreciating the subtleties of Thomas' cooking.

Tatyana's ghost suddenly appeared over the table as everyone began eating.

"Incoming call from Cayde-6"

"Hey Tatyana! Ohh is that eggs? Where'd you guys get them? Why didn't you send me some? I thought we were closer than that."

Thomas sprung up from his plate and spoke out "Give me 5 pounds of sugar and I could get you a dozen!"

"5 pounds? That's too bad. Zavala's ration card is out of sugar for the week. I mean. MY ration card is out of sugar for the week. Can anyone lend me? I'll pay you back, I promise!"

Annoyed, Claire interrupted "What do you want, Cayde?"

"Oh right. So, Tatyana, we have intel that a notorious Fallen sniper is entering your sector. Baron Tokris, have you heard of him? He was at Six Front. Captured hundreds of guardians. Almost took my head off once. Anyways, I'd take care of him myself but I'm more of a gunslinger and there's just no cool way to hold a sniper rifle in one hand. I have a plan to take him out once and for all, but I'll need you plus another sniper, and a sunsinger warlock."

Tatyana looked over to Leo, their resident sunsinger warlock. "Why do you need a sunsinger warlock?"

"Well, the reason Tokris has been so successful is because he avoid fighting with more than one guardian at a time. He stalks fireteams but only engage when he could pick off lone scouts or stragglers when they couldn't be revived and could be captured. We need you and another sniper to approach within the extreme range of Tokris but remain unseen. The sunsinger warlock will act as bait. Make sure the warlock is the ONLY guardian Tokris sees or else he won't commit. The Warlock will approach the Fallen trenches very close, and let Tokris shoot them. When he reveals his position, the warlock self-revives and you all blow him to smithereens. Capische?"

"Alright Cayde, we'll go right after breakfast. I've been itching for a good sniper duel since Venus."

"Good hunting, Tatyana. And Thomas, call me about those eggs later!"

The call ends. Tatyana looked about the table and was mentally selecting her partner for this mission. Since Leo was the warlock, she paid him no attention. If she had, she'd see that Leo was frozen solid in place, a piece of egg dangling from his fork and half-chewed food still in his mouth.

Tatyana immediately eliminated Claire right off the bat. She used a sword, a sidearm and a hand cannon, which meant she couldn't harm anything farther than 50 feet. Makhamet was a good shot, but Tatyana had never hunted with him before, and this was too important a mission to have any risk. Wilhelm was a very good sniper, but his accuracy was poor at extreme distances, which would be the case for today's hunt. That left Thomas, who used a rocket launcher and was quite accurate with it at any range. If Tatyana missed, Thomas' rocket could still find its mark and either kill or seriously wound Tokris.

At the same time, Leo was thinking through his own predicament. Since he's lost his Light, he would not be able to revive himself, nor be revived by anyone. Leo tried to find an excuse, but none came to him that would not appear cowardly. He hoped for a moment that someone else might volunteer, but in the event that Tatyana & whoever went with her could not revive the bait, then that person's ghost would be captured, and they'd be subjected to an eternity of reviving themselves only to be promptly re-killed inside of a Fallen prison cell. That too was an unacceptable outcome, especially if it happened to Claire. Leo at last accepted that he would have to give his life as bait.

"Sorry everyone, I have to go get ready. Wilhelm can have my other egg, I haven't touched it yet."

Leo left the table in a rush, ignoring all of his fireteam's questions and remarks. He had only one last task in this lifetime: bury his ghost, the sole evidence of his suicide. When he dies in battle, his death would be a great mystery, and Leo liked the idea of sparing his fireteam the grief.

Leo took a shovel from the bunker, dug a snug hole in the dirt and mud within the trench, and laid his ghost down. He hadn't thought it would feel like a funeral. Leo closed his eyes, and thanked his ghost for the second life he'd been given. He asked the ghost for his forgiveness. Although he was grateful to be alive, he did not belong to this new world in which he'd been reborn into.

"I'll see you soon, ghost. I'm sorry."

Leo shoveled dirt on top of the ghost, and stomped the mound of dirt until it was level and packed solid. Yet, he felt incomplete, and a restless sensation gnawed in his stomach, the kind one feels when an important task had been forgotten and left unfinished.

The thought finally came to Leo. "Claire".

Leo went back into the bunker, and retrieved his letter writing set from Wilhelm's desk. He brought it back to one of the common living spaces, locked the door, and began writing down his every unfiltered and unedited thoughts in ink. It was the first time he'd ever done so in this life and the previous.

"Dear Claire ….. "


	4. Chapter 4

Tatyana and Thomas watched from their foxhole as Leo sprinted across the battlefield. He jumped frequently, and dashed about as to avoid stepping on the multitude of dead that laid all about. They noticed that Leo wasn't using his warlock glide, but reasoned that he may have just fancied a run. He did run in a very graceful manner, his weight shifting to and fro evenly, his centre of gravity preserved at all times. Tatyana held up a thumb to make a ranging of how far away Leo was. He continued the sprint for a few more seconds, and soon he appeared equal to the size of her thumb.

"Ok Leo you're 500 meters away." Tatyana spoke into radio of her armour.

Leo came to a sudden halt and dropped to his stomach in front of a dead vandal. He crawled the last few meters, and propped the vandal up sideway to use as a shield. Leo steadied his rifle onto the gape of the dead vandal's neck, and began selecting his target from the many that moved about in the Fallen trench.

Leo fired a bullet at a shank, and it exploded into a fireball. The Fallen quickly responded to the shot and ran into their trench and foxholes for cover. He followed up the shot with three more, each hitting nothing but dirt and grass.

"Now we wait Leo. Tokris will be here soon enough."

Leo scanned the horizon with his scope for Tokris. Seeing nothing and no one in the scope, Leo lowered the rifle and peeked his head out to in the hope of catching a glare from Tokris' scope, and he could see from the left a flickering flash of light.

"Tokris" Leo said into his radio, and closed his eyes, readying himself for death's embrace.

Leo heard the electric sound of a Fallen tracer round being shot from its barrel, but felt nothing. Actually, he still felt a good many things, and that was the problem. Leo opened his eyes and saw that the shot had landed 20 meters away. It can't be Tokris.

"There he is!" Tatyana yelled out.

With lightning reflex, she trained her scope on the source of the shot, and pulled her trigger with the confidence she'd felt hundreds of thousands of times before. Thomas followed up with two rockets, launched in rapid succession against the same target. Regardless if Tatyana had landed her shot, Thomas' explosives tore up the landscape surrounding that area, from which no living thing could emerge from.

Tatyana and Thomas stood up from their cover to inspect the result of their work. Tatyana was the first to cry out in excitement.

"Haha! Nice shot, Thomas! We got him!"

At the very same time, another Fallen round rang out from the right side of the horizon. Another shot followed it from the left, and again from the centre, the far right, far left this time, back to the right. Soon, shots were whistling past them from all directions, and they both took to the foxhole for cover again.

"What the hell! Where'd they all come from?"

Leo cried out to his comrades "it's a trap! Run! Save yourself!"

Thomas slowly raised his head from the foxhole to assess the situation. Scarce before his eyelines had been level to the ground, a Fallen bullet grazed the top of his helmet, and Thomas instinctively ducked back into cover.

"We can't! There are too many of them!"

A Fallen captain sallied forth from the trenches with several bands of vandals and dregs. The vandals sped past the dregs and captains and secured the flanks, encircling Leo from all sides. Afraid that the prey might be allowed to escape, the captain gave the order for the dregs to pile on top of Leo, who at the last moment stood up and fired point-blank shots from his rifle at the encroaching mass of Fallen. He'd scarce gotten off two shots before Fallen captain struck the rifle from Leo's grip with his swords, and the dregs piled hundreds of pounds of weight on his person.

"Take him to the rear. Send word to the Kell that we've trapped the White Rose of Venus, and send every battalion in reserves to the front. Today, we have our revenge!"

Still trapped in their foxhole surrounded by enfilading fire that increasingly came closer and increased in volume, Tatyana and Thomas could only listen helplessly as Leo was being captured. Tatyana switched the channel to her fireteam in the rear, and began screaming

"Help! It's a trap! The Fallen took Leo and have us surrounded! Come right away! Send for help from the other fireteam in the rear too! There are at least 500 Fallen here, and more on the way! Quick!"

Wilhelm was the first to hear the transmission, and began sprinting toward the battle, shouting into his communicator as he ran "Hang on Tatyana! I'm on my way!"

Mukhamet and Claire looked at each other as they listened to the transmission in disbelief before leaping from the trench in unison. Claire spoke first: "What are you doing? Radio the fireteam in the rear for help! I'm going with Wilhelm!"

"They're being surrounded by snipers. You don't have any long range weapons, what can you do? You get help!"

Mukhamet didn't wait to argue and continued running. Frustrated, Claire ran after him, switching her radio channel to the fireteam in the rear as she ran.

"Jake! Come in! Stian! Scott! Come in! Anyone there? Scott? Patrick! Anyone! Brenna! Catherine!"

There was no reply. The channel returned only static.

Mukhamet heard the transmissions from Claire's radio as he ran, and turned his head to Claire.

"They were reassigned to Mars! It's a different group back there now! You have to go find them! It's the only way! Do it before you've killed us all!"

Claire continued running for all of 10 seconds as she attempted to call Mukhamet's bluff before stopping in her tracks with a cry of anger. She turned and started running back in the direction of the trench. While Claire had initially protested this role out of the fear that she'd be helpless, she slowly began to accept Mukhamet's analysis of the situation. She realized now that she carried with her the hopes of survival of her entire fireteam, and Claire ran faster than she'd ever ran before.


End file.
